Category Archives: Beer

Japan beer giants raided over suspicions they colluded to set the price of beverages

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Investigators probe Asahi, Kirin, Suntory and Sapporo breweries – which together control more than 90% of Japan’s beer market

Japanese authorities have raided the country’s four biggest breweries over suspicions they colluded to set the price of beer and other beverages – a practice media reports said could have forced drinkers to pay over the odds.

Officials from the Fair Trade Commission this week searched the offices of Asahi Breweries, Kirin Brewery, Suntory Beer and Sapporo Breweries – which together control more than 90% of the domestic market. The quartet are suspected of violating the anti-monopoly law.

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Give BrewDog ‘second chance’ says new owner as it invests £50m

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US cannabis and drinks firm Tilray, which took over in March, says it will improve beers, pubs and working conditions

BrewDog’s new owner has urged drinkers to give the ailing brand “a second chance” as it invests more than £50m in improving the company’s beers, pubs and working conditions.

The US cannabis and drinks company Tilray bought BrewDog for £33m in March this year, after the company collapsed into administration after five years of losses and a series of controversies relating to the treatment of workers under the founder James Watt.

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Scientists make sourdough bread using yeast found in 5,000-year-old mummy

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Team now plans to see if they can use yeast strains harvested from Ötzi the Iceman to brew beer too

Scientists have baked a sourdough loaf of bread using yeast strains harvested from a 5,000-year-old mummy and now plan to see if they can use them to brew beer too.

The yeast came from Ötzi the Iceman, a famous corpse remarkably preserved by being frozen in Alpine ice near the Italy-Austria border until he was discovered in 1991. Ötzi has been the subject of intense study since he was found and has shed much light on pre-historic European people and their way of life.

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Stout clobber? Guinness tie-up features £1,295 ‘pub carpet’ jumper

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Brand enlists JW Anderson to help brew up 17-piece range of luxury fashionwear, from ‘beer towel’ shorts to branded trousers and tops

You too can look like a pub carpet – and for the bargain price of £1,295. Such sartorial elegance – perhaps an option for anyone stepping out to celebrate St Patrick’s Day this week – is the aesthetic love-child of a partnership between Guinness and the luxury clothing brand JW Anderson.

The tie-up, launched earlier this month, allows fashionistas to get their hands on a range of Guinness wear that exploits the continuing metamorphosis of the “black stuff” from unfashionable pub staple to social media status symbol.

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Japan days away from running out of Asahi Super Dry due to cyber attack – reports

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The attack forced the company to halt production at most of its 30 factories nationwide, including those producing its signature beer

The Asahi group, Japan’s biggest brewery, is reportedly just days away from running out of its most popular beer, as it struggles to recover from a cyber-attack that caused a system outage.

The ransomware attack, reported on Monday, forced the company to halt production at most of its 30 factories nationwide, including those producing it signature mass-market lager Asahi Super Dry.

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Women’s Euro 2025 final to cap £800m boost for UK supermarkets, pubs and retailers

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Sunday’s England v Spain match set to be most-watched women’s football match in UK history, benefiting food, drink and hospitality industries

The climax of the exhilarating women’s Euros, as the Lionesses attempt to atone for their loss to Spain at the World Cup, is poised to be the most-watched women’s football match in UK history with the tournament providing a more than £800m boost to supermarkets, pubs and retailers.

With Sunday’s showdown aired on both ITV and the BBC, and their respective streaming services, TV industry executives expect that, with the help of a family-friendly 5pm kick-off time, viewing will eclipse the 14.8 million peak audience when England lost 1-0 to Spain in Sydney two years ago, if the match is close.

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Guinness boom prompts owner Diageo to consider sale or spin-off

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Stout, which has become fashionable with gen Z drinkers, likely to be valued at more than £8bn

The drinks company Diageo is considering cashing in on booming demand for pints of Guinness by selling or listing the famous beer brand on the stock market, according to reports.

Selling or spinning off Guinness are among the options being considered by the FTSE 100 company as part of a plan to revive its fortunes, according to Bloomberg which first reported the story.

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Indie brewers ditch ‘craft beer’ tag as drinkers are ‘misled’ by global brands

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Survey shows many consumers unaware that previously standalone businesses now owned by big corporations

Small breweries in the UK are ditching the term “craft beer” in favour of “indie beer”, warning that global corporations have bamboozled many drinkers into believing that formerly independent brands are still artisanal hidden gems.

In a survey by YouGov that marks a new phase of the bitter war over what constitutes “craft beer”, consumers were asked to say whether 10 beer brands were made by “independent craft breweries”.

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Low alcohol sales boom ahead of Euros final

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More fans are embracing ‘nolo’ booze and canned ‘mocktails’ while watching the game to be sure of a clear head the next day

For some England fans it would be unthinkable to watch the Euro 2024 final without a beer in hand, but with the prospect of work in the morning, many will be dodging a hangover by switching to alcohol-free booze.

Retailers have seen huge sales of no- or low-alcohol (nolo) beer, cider, wine and canned “mocktails” in the past few days, as hosts get ready for Sunday night’s viewing parties.

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Munich’s Oktoberfest to ban Italian disco hit co-opted by far right

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Managers say no place at beer festival for song adapted with Nazi slogan ‘Germany for the Germans, foreigners out’

The managers of Munich’s Oktoberfest have said they will seek to ban an Italian disco hit from being played at the world’s most famous beer festival after its hijacking by far-right revellers.

In recent months the schmaltzy love lyrics of L’amour Toujours, a catchy 2001 hit by Italian DJ Gigi D’Agostino, have repeatedly been drowned out at public gatherings by a Nazi slogan: “Germany for the Germans, foreigners out”.

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Britons switching to smaller, higher-quality alcoholic drinks, experts say

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Increasing preference said to be driven by desire to be healthier and is fuelling trend for 100ml taster bottles

As the adage goes: good things come in small packages. According to alcohol industry experts British consumers are increasingly choosing to enjoy their beverages in smaller portions, but of higher quality – fuelling a trend for 100ml taster bottles.

The shift comes from a desire to be healthier, experts say, with drinking among UK teenagers and young people falling. In June 2023, Tesco sold 25% more low- and non-alcoholic beer than in dry January.

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Tsingtao beer loses its fizz in South Korea after video of worker appearing to urinate into tank

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China’s Tsingtao beer reportedly experiences a consumer backlash in South Korea after video of a worker appearing to urinate into a beer tank goes viral

Restaurants and consumers in South Korea have quickly lost their taste for Tsingtao beer, according to media reports, after a video that appeared to show a brewery worker urinating into a tank at one of the firm’s plants in China went viral.

The clip, which has been viewed tens of millions of times on social media since it appeared last Thursday, shows a man wearing a helmet and blue uniform clambering over the side of a high-walled container and apparently relieving himself over its contents.

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Dylan Mulvaney says woman-of-the-year award ‘means so much more’ after Bud Light backlash

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Attitude magazine celebrates TikTok star who collaborated with beer maker who left her high and dry after conservatives boycotted

After gaining Attitude magazine’s first-ever woman of the year award, US trans activist Dylan Mulvaney said receiving such recognition from the UK-based LGBTQ+ publication “means so much more” after a substantial transphobic backlash undermined her Bud Light advertisement.

“No matter how hard I try or what I wear, or what I say, or what surgeries I get, I will never reach an acceptable version of womanhood by those hateful people’s standards,” Mulvaney said in social media videos that showed her accepting the award this week. “But as long as I have the queer community that sees me for my truth – I’m gonna be OK.”

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‘It all disappeared with Brexit’: Craft beer boom ends as more than 100 UK firms go bust

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New trade barriers were compounded by Covid and tax changes

Kimi Karjalainen and his brother Marko poured their life savings into Bone Machine Brewing Co when it opened in Pocklington, East Yorkshire, in 2017 before moving to Hull, as part of the craft beer revolution that swept Britain.

“The entire investment, not including time and labour that we gave for free, was about £70,000,” Karjalainen said. Four weeks ago, it was gone. “That was my parents’ retirement.”

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Influencer Dylan Mulvaney condemns Bud Light’s response to transphobia

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Trans social media star says company largely abandoned her amid bullying responses to beer promotion

Dylan Mulvaney has spoken out against Bud Light, criticizing the brand for not supporting her amid transphobic backlash to an advertisement featuring the influencer.

In a TikTok video captioned “Trans people like beer, too”, Mulvaney, who is trans, called out Bud Light for largely abandoning her after she was bullied for posting a sponsored video to Instagram with the beer brand.

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Rise in UK breweries going bust amid thirst for cheaper craft beers

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45 breweries, mostly smaller makers, enter insolvency in last 12 months, up from 15 the previous year

The number of UK breweries going out of business has tripled in the past year, with smaller craft beer manufacturers most at risk as consumers opt for cheaper options during the cost of living crisis, according to research.

In total, 45 breweries entered insolvency in the 12 months ending 31 March, compared with 15 in the previous year, according to the most recent official Insolvency Service statistics analysed by Mazars, an audit, tax and advisory firm.

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Belgium crushes 2,000 cans of Miller High Life over ‘champagne of beers’ slogan

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Comité Champagne asks for destruction of shipment on grounds Miller High Life’s motto infringes champagne’s protected origin

The guardians of champagne will let no one take the name of the bubbly beverage in vain, not even a US beer behemoth.

For years, Miller High Life has used the “Champagne of Beers” slogan. This week, it became clear that for some the name has became impossible to swallow.

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BrewDog to expand in China after Budweiser deal

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Punk IPA maker says it wants to sell more of its craft beer in world’s biggest market

BrewDog has said it plans to brew in China as part of a deal with Budweiser China to expand sales in the world’s biggest market for beer.

Budweiser China would start brewing BrewDog’s Punk IPA, Hazy Jane and Elvis Juice beers by the end of March at its Putian craft brewery near the south-east coast, the companies announced on Monday.

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‘A trend is starting’: France leading way in alcohol-free drinks boom

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Rush of startups creating alcohol-free spirits, wines and beers is a departure in a country with a vast booze industry

When Nicole, a retired executive assistant, began preparing her new year get-togethers with family and friends, her first purchase was an artisan bottle of French alcohol-free gin.

“There’s something in the air right now,” the 71-year-old said. “Young people in their 20s and 30s drink so much less booze than we did. My generation was rock’n’roll, we drank a lot, smoked a lot. Times have changed. Young people are finding alternatives – and it’s benefiting us oldies too as we try to step back from bad habits.”

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Singapore craft beer uses recycled sewage to highlight water scarcity

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Collaboration between national water agency and craft brewer described as ‘highly quaffable’

It is a beer made with only the finest ingredients: premium German barley malts, aromatic Citra and Calypso hops, farmhouse yeast from Norway – and reclaimed sewage.

NewBrew, a collaboration between Singapore’s national water agency and the local craft brewery Brewerkz, has already proved popular and has sold out on tap at the brewery’s restaurants, according to reports.

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